REVIEW: ‘Cable Love and Chrome’ Issue 2

Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2 is published by Marvel Comics. Written by David Pepose, art by Mike Henderson, colors by Arif Prianto and letters by Joe Sabino.

In the latest issue, Cable is in the far future, fighting a corporation that controls the drug that keeps a whole community alive. But the enemies are vile and violent, and another followed Cable through time.

Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2 alternates between the two key themes that the title suggests. Pepose unleashes heavy metal action, with Cable taking on important structures and areas that the Prime Conclave controls. It’s a hardcore military sci-fi story with freakish technology and a rough approach to the conflict. However, it can also show cracks in the metal, with the blossoming love story between Cable and Avery Ryder, the woman he has met and fallen for in Salvation Bay.

There is still a rough approach to these conversations, but it is caring and attempts to be gentle. Every time the characters fling themselves into action, there is real danger and consequences. When the characters suffer injuries, the wounds get repaired by the Techno-Organic Virus running through their body.

Alongside their resistance against the threat in that timeline, Cicada has emerged to seek revenge on Cable. Each battle is wildly chaotic, with something new entering the fray. Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2  is an intensely physical issue that punishes its main characters immensely, with a surprising final page.

The characters within Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2 have only known war, so it is difficult for them to open up. That actually makes the more delicate conversations they have even more fascinating. Pepose explores facing certain incoming death, and the characters’ honesty is engrossing. Those with terminal illnesses have a unique perspective on life, and Cable and Avery are examples of that.

But their personalities are so intense that they can boil over into extreme emotions. Both main characters have suffered enormous losses, too, and are finally getting someone to talk about it with. Everywhere around them, people are hostile and unfriendly, trying to kill them. While they have brief moments of vulnerability, Cable and Avery are still hardened and willing to fight with the same ferocity as their enemies.

The art is terrifically scruffy, making finding beauty within the pages difficult. The Techno-Organic Virus has ravaged both main characters, and its spreading toxicity can be seen from every angle. Even in their tender talks, their scars are visible. They try to romanticize their home with candles, but that reveals the cracks in the walls. Every time the outside world is shown, new reasons why it is so dangerous become clear.

The final foes of Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2 are grotesque creatures crafted by malicious scientists. They are freakish and frightening. The intensity is intoxicating, with the technology and flesh fusing through horrible methods and the soldiers then trying to tear them apart. And because of Cable’s excellent design, he fits perfectly into the world that Henderson illustrates. It may be the first location where he doesn’t look out of place.

The colors affect the temperature of the comic. The glaring sun and orange desert make the outside look blisteringly hot and stuffy, and the candlelit love scene is soothing in such a dangerous world. The grey metal looks cold and unrelenting, with a sickly green tinge used for the background of the final battle. The lettering is mostly effortless to read, with the only difficulty being something from the font attributed to the villains.

Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2 tries to find a heart in the most hardcore settings. Not only is the world dying and corrupted, but the very flesh of the humans is coated in metal. Everything from the art to the writing tries to press against the heroes and make their love difficult. And yet, there is a love story brewing within the metal and mayhem. That should not be misconstrued as soppy.

Pepose keeps Cable Love and Chrome Issue 2 violent and visceral, with death always just around the corner. But that makes it the perfect time to discuss death because it is so close.

Cable: Love and Chrome Issue 2 is available where comics are sold.